Twilight Princess: First (or third) Impressions

I can't really do a 'first impressions' post about one of my all-time favorite games that I've played through at least twice before, but since I decided to replay Twilight Princess to blow off some steam between now and the RPG release juggernauts of the coming year. The game's an incredibly fun action-adventure title- the world is beautiful and fun to explore, the puzzles are clever and imaginative, and the story is great. 

Playing through it again a few years later (I got the Gamecube version when I was 12), I can't quite say the game is perfect. The game starts off rather slow, the mandatory wolf sections aren't as fun now as they used to be (I loved the unsettling atmosphere of the Twilight Realm when I was younger, but the "tears of light" hunts haven't gotten any better with age), and the story cribs a lot from it's predecessors, especially near the end. I wrote a review after my last playthrough of the game, which I'll probably post sometime soon.

Despite my minor criticisms, Twilight Princess is still one of my favorite games, and one of the best games in an excellent series. It's definetly one of the best Gamecube games, and if you own a Wii it's also a must-play.